Visiting Scholars Programme

The Aleksanteri Institute Visiting Scholars Programme provides an opportunity for highly qualified scholars in Russian and Eastern European studies to visit the Aleksanteri Institute and the University of Helsinki for a period of two to three months, supported with a monthly grant, which in the academic year 2012–2013 is 2500 €. Aleksanteri Visiting Fellows have the opportunity to conduct research and interact with other researchers at the Aleksanteri Institute and with the wider academic community at the University of Helsinki and in Finland. Each Visiting Fellow has a research host working on a related theme and helping to establish contacts with the research community in Finland.

While the Aleksanteri Institute is an independent institute of the University of Helsinki, it also has a national function, acting as the Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies. Therefore, Visiting Fellows may also accept invitations for short visits to Finnish universities other than the University of Helsinki. The Aleksanteri Institute is coordinating the Finnish Centre of Excellence “Choices of Russian Modernisation”, funded by the Academy of Finland for the period of 2012-2017. The CoE is run together with the University of Tampere.  

Starting from the academic year 2008-2009, the Visiting Scholars Programme has invited over 70 Visiting Fellows working on various fields and themes within social sciences and humanities, and representing 21 countries from Europe through North America to China.

Here you can find information on the 15 Visiting Fellows joining the Aleksanteri Institute during 2012-2013. Visiting Fellows present their research projects in the Visiting Fellows Research Seminars.

Read more about the Visiting Fellows having worked with us during the years 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

Visiting Fellows 2013-2014

The call for applications for the academic year 2013–2014 was open until February 22, 2013. 13 Aleksanteri Visiting Fellows were selected out of 159 proposals. The number of excellent proposals far exceeded our hosting capacity, and only a very small portion of all the high-level proposals could be supported.  While the selection of proposals was based on academic excellence, it also strived to reach a balance between the nominated Visiting Fellows’ projects and the various research foci and regions covered by the Aleksanteri Institute.

We wish to sincerely thank all those who were interested in coming to the University of Helsinki and to the Aleksanteri Institute! We hope that you will consider applying to our Visiting Scholars programme in the future as well. The next call for proposals is expected to open in early January 2014.  

Former Visiting Fellows Alexander Etkind, Petra Rethmann and Marlene Laruelle.

Find out more about the University of Helsinki at http://www.helsinki.fi/university
Useful links to sites giving information on living in Helsinki and in Finland can be found here:  http://www.helsinki.fi/intstaff/